1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an image forming apparatus accepting a selecting operation of a button displayed on a touch panel and performing a process corresponding to the selected button. More specifically, the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and an operation accepting method in which various methods of selecting buttons are provided.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are some people who temporarily or permanently suffer from physical disorder. For such people suffering from physical disorder (hereinafter “the disabled”), it may be difficult to move his/her hand (finger) to the various positions on a touch panel of an apparatus to set a desired operating condition of the apparatus.
To overcome the difficulty, various methods have been developed to help the disabled so as to operate apparatuses more easily. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-171570 (“Patent Document 1”) discloses a switching input method in which an arrow bar rotates and scans on a display and, when the arrow bar is at the desired position, the disabled uses a pneumatic switch to select (input) the operation displayed at the desired position.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-155205 (“Patent Document 2”) discloses a technique making it easier to select (press) a button positioned where it is hard to be pressed down, though the technique is not specifically targeted to the disabled. More specifically, Patent Document 2 discloses an input control apparatus in which a display screen is divided into plural display regions, which enables an operator to select one of the plural display regions. In this case, the operator uses a pointing device. More specifically, the operator precisely moves the pointing device in any direction to determine the input position.
However, in the switching input method of Patent Document 1, a means for detecting the pneumatic air pressure is additionally required; and as a result, an operation of the apparatus may not be completed with a touch panel alone.
On the other hand, in the input control apparatus of Patent Document 2, it is still difficult for the disabled to precisely operate (move) the pointing device.